Chamber and committees

No, I do not. I believe that Scotland is a country that will be welcomed into the European Union. We have the most amazing resources, whether that is people, our landscape, the universities, the businesses or the energy. Moreover, from a strategic point of view, Scotland is incredibly important to Europe.

My constituent and I spoke about the benefits of living in Argyll and Bute and how Scotland will be the best independent country in the world. That is not the empty rhetoric that we have heard from Reform this afternoon; that is hope, dreams and someone who cares about Scotland. Like others, I had not intended to speak in the debate, because I do not do the dog-whistle politics that some people like in this chamber. However, having had that conversation on Monday, I was compelled to do so.

I politely suggest to Reform UK that its motion is an insult to hard-working Scots, whether they work in our schools, our hospitals or our small businesses. The utter negativity of the motion shows a complete lack of awareness of the amazing stuff that is happening across Scotland. I will touch on a couple of examples.

The Reform motion mixes up net zero policies, as my colleague Jackie Dunbar has talked about. It says that net zero

“harms individual opportunities and economic growth”.

If any of the Reform members had taken part in my colleague Maggie Chapman’s debate on university education, they would have heard me talk about the Scottish Association for Marine Science, which is in Oban, in my constituency. Scientists there are doing lots of things: examining the life cycle and behaviours of sea lice in order to tackle one of the main issues in fin-fish aquaculture; using underwater robotic vehicles to identify entanglement risks to aquatic mammals; restoring many of the bottlenecks in the emerging seaweed farming industry; providing crucial marine mammal data for marine renewables; and using net zero as a way to employ people and improve our businesses. That strengthens our communities, expands the economy and helps businesses to cope with climate change. Having a world-class marine science research centre such as SAMS has allowed Highlands and Islands Enterprise to develop its European marine science park, bringing specialist companies in high-growth sectors to the area and improving repopulation in my constituency.

Angela Ross talked a lot about education. I must say that I agree with her about one thing—although she is, in my opinion, contradicting one of her fellow party members—which is that art is not an optional extra. Art is one of the most important subjects, and we can all engage with it for many reasons, such as our mental wellbeing and the betterment of our country. I am interested to know whether Mr Kerr thinks that it is a pointless subject.

Yesterday, I met pupils at Sunnyside primary school in Glasgow, and we talked about climate change, the Celtic and Amazonian rainforests and the fact that Scotland is the proud host of a rainforest. In my constituency, Dunoon grammar school won the world’s best school prize for community collaboration. That is the kind of schooling and education—and those are the kind of pupils—that we should be presenting.

Duncan Massey talked about grid infrastructure. In Kintyre and Mid Argyll, in my constituency, £400 million has been invested in infrastructure upgrade in order to increase grid capacity; we also have investment in distribution enhancements for network resilience projects, because climate change means that we need to improve resilience. Therefore, that investment is happening in Scotland.

I would like to reflect on Willie Rennie’s comments. Bute welcomed families from Syria, who are now an integral part of the island. In Lochgilphead, Ukrainian families have settled and helped to revitalise the town’s main street with two new businesses. As the Proclaimers sing,

“They’re all Scotland’s story and they’re all the same.”

I would like to strongly associate myself with Willie Rennie’s remarks, and to recognise the amazing Nigerian and Baltic staff working at Balnacarron care home in St Andrews.

I agree with Labour’s amendment. The importance of reducing inequalities is so important, and I whole-heartedly agree with the sentiments that Jenny Young expressed in her speech in the members’ business debate on Jo Cox last week. That is where we should come together in this Parliament to improve things for everyone.

Oh no—I have lost the final page of my notes. I have never done that before.

Mòran taing, Oifigear Riaghlaidh. Thank you very much, Presiding Officer.

I want to start with the words of one of my constituents:

“I am not a politician, nor do I ever wish to become one. I am a leatherworker, a father and a business owner. I want to spend my life building my business, raising my children and living quietly in Scotland. However, I also believe that when ordinary people see a problem in society, they should not be afraid to speak up and propose solutions.”

My constituent wanted to talk to me because he wants to find a way for Scotland to become a normal, independent country. Angela Ross’s analogy of a crossroads is fair, but our decision as to which track we will follow is a different one. From my perspective, it is independence that we should choose.

On Monday, I met my constituent and his wife. He spoke about the impact that Brexit had had on his business and how, because of that vote, his order book collapsed. He had to find new ways of marketing and promoting his business to ensure that he and his family survived. He spoke about the support that he had received from the SNP to expand his business. He spoke about the support that he had received from the Scottish Government to employ apprentices. That support has allowed him to expand his business to a third workshop.

I thank the minister for his statement and I agree that Scotland should most definitely be at the heart of Europe. Ending the free movement of labour has severely restricted the pool of workers in key sectors in Argyll and Bute. Tourism, hospitality and the care sector have all struggled with staff shortages and recruitment difficulties, and I have lost count of the number of organisations that have spoken to me directly about that.

Given that the UK Government has neglected to act to resolve the issue, does the minister agree that it should step aside and devolve the powers to the Scottish Parliament so that we can introduce a Scottish visa system that supports all those sectors and more?

I thank the minister for her statement, which had business, hope and ambition for all of Scotland—especially rural and island areas such as Argyll and Bute—at its heart.

I note the minister’s comments on the Faroe Islands. I am sure that she will agree that, given the challenging Scottish budget settlement and the economic circumstances, there is a clear case for Scotland to have additional fiscal flexibilities to better manage our budget. Does she agree that Scotland would be far better placed to manage the public finances if it had the full powers of independence?

I congratulate Maggie Chapman on securing this members’ business debate on such an important area of Scottish life: our universities and, more broadly, our higher education sector. Her final words were very powerful—I thank her for them—and I note that, in my constituency, there have been some issues around redundancies at the University of the Highlands and Islands.

I was interested in the way in which Maggie Chapman started her speech, because it was the way in which my thought process has gone, too. If I may, I will take us back to the roots of the word “university”. It comes from the medieval Latin word “universitas”—I never did Latin, so apologies for my pronunciation—meaning a number of persons associated into one body. Historically, the term referred not to a physical place of learning but to the people who made it, and that came through powerfully in Maggie Chapman’s speech.

The origins of “university” made me wonder whether we have forgotten why we have universities and what their value is to our wider communities. I have two vital higher education establishments in my constituency: the University of the Highlands and Islands and the Scottish Association for Marine Science. SAMS’s strategy for 2025 to 2030 sets out a plan for

“World-leading science for a healthy ocean and thriving people”

and, perhaps, blue-sea thinking. For the reader, the words that jump out from the strategy are “together”, “discovery”, “educate”, “innovate”, “action” and, importantly, “people”.

UHI is in 48 locations, seven of which are in my constituency, and it provides flexible learning opportunities. It is also embedded in our secondary schools. For example, Oban high school students developed their own fish farm sites for their end-of-year projects as part of the into aquaculture course that was designed by Scottish Sea Farms in conjunction with UHI Argyll.

I am pleased to see that there is collaboration between SAMS and UHI in a range of academic opportunities, from a BSc in marine science to PhDs in high-impact marine science fields. Those give opportunities to students who do not wish to move from the area to further their education, and they bring students from around the world to stem the brain drain and depopulation that Argyll and Bute faces.

Industries such as finfish aquaculture, seaweed farming, fishing and offshore renewables increasingly rely on research data to innovate and inform sustainable development and best practice in their respective sectors. Scotland’s future growth depends on activity in those areas, and the research and available data must keep pace with industrial and commercial development. As well as ensuring that development is as environmentally sensitive as possible, it allows policy makers to make informed decisions.

SAMS won the collaboration category at the UK Aquaculture Awards, having worked alongside the salmon farming industry and the Scottish Environment Protection Agency. SAMS scientists are examining the life cycle and behaviours of sea lice to help to tackle one of the main issues in finfish aquaculture, using underwater robotic vehicles to identify entanglement risks to marine mammals. There is so much going on, with great examples of further education and research tailoring their offerings to what their community needs, both locally and globally.

I do not know whether anybody noticed the article in The Guardian today about the Biodiversity Heritage Library, an online archive of historical texts on species living and lost. The withdrawal of funding from that area of work will impact on our knowledge around biodiversity. As Maggie Chapman noted, this is not just a Scottish crisis; it is a worldwide one. We must ensure that we continue that education.

SAMS hosts a rare algae library—leabharlann feamainn. The 100-year-old Culture Collection of Algae and Protozoa supplies and supports science around the world.

Be it local or global, Scotland’s vital higher education sector must remain at the heart of world learning, and I support Maggie Chapman’s calls for connection and collaboration with everybody involved in our universities. We have far too much to lose if we do not do that.

16:25

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on the timeline for the delivery of a medium-term solution to the A83 Rest and Be Thankful. (S7O-00094)

As the minister might be aware, I organised a series of round-table meetings in September with local businesses, the community and national businesses, and concerns were raised about the use of the old military road for the duration of the construction period of the long-term solution. I believe that that would be hugely detrimental to the economy and communities of Argyll and Bute. Given his portfolio, the minister will appreciate those concerns, so I hope that he will support me in asking the cabinet secretary to meet the Rest and Be Thankful campaign group to discuss its proposals and understand the reasoning behind its preference for the medium-term option.

I listened carefully to the cabinet secretary’s response to Morven-May MacCallum, because my question is in a similar area.

InspirAlba works with those who are most vulnerable across Argyll and Bute’s rural and island communities. Some of those communities, such as the communities in Gigha, Tiree and Glenbarr, have been groundbreaking in creating different conditions for community wellbeing. There are examples of community energy that have reinvigorated rural communities and invested in local solutions that reduce inequalities and ensure better outcomes for children and young people. However, less than 1 per cent of Scotland’s energy is in community or local authority ownership. How do we join the dots between economic policies, just transition and child poverty to ensure a robust and sustainable future for all our children and young people, for now and for future generations?

I, too, associate myself with the cabinet secretary’s comments with respect to the staff who work in maternity services, especially those in Argyll and Bute.

This is a follow-on question from Donald MacKinnon’s. To ensure that the current 24-hour midwife-led community service is maintained in places such as Argyll and Bute, staffing levels cannot be reduced. What discussions is the Scottish Government having with health boards and health and social care partnerships to ensure that there is appropriate staff funding to improve maternity services across Scotland, especially in rural constituencies such as Argyll and Bute? How are the very important rural and island voices being included in the maternity review?

I would like to continue the theme that Murdo Fraser and Meghan Gallacher started, which Alyn Smith followed up on, by suggesting that, in Ivan McKee, we have Ivan the Great.

Prior to moving to Argyll and Bute, I lived in Glasgow and worked for BBC Scotland, where I had the pleasure of using my skills as an accountant to empower people to make programmes as creatively and efficiently as possible and give best value to the audience. I have never made a television or radio programme in my life, but I know that, when I had to provide business plans or budgets, the best people to give me the right information to crunch the numbers were the programme makers themselves.

I believe that I created an atmosphere of collaboration, not competition, between different programme makers, and I believe that I gained their trust. Therefore, I believe that learning from those on the front line can drive change and enable progress to be made.

Islay has been my home for the past 15 years. What struck me when I first moved there was the importance of the role that the public sector plays in rural and island communities. People in such communities are closer to the public sector. We see the consequences of public sector decision making. We know the refuse collectors, the teachers live up the road from us and we bump into the doctor in the Co-op. The public sector, which provides the services that we all need, is the beating heart of small communities, and I thank it for its work. I would argue that it is the people who provide those services who know where efficiencies can be achieved, and I agree with the cabinet secretary’s point that organisations need to be structured in a way that allows such dialogue to take place.

When I served in government, I visited NHS Ayrshire and Arran with the women’s health champion, Professor Anna Glasier, and we saw two amazing examples of small teams working together to find ways of integrating disciplines and using new technologies to improve women’s health and change the culture. They knew that they had no more budget. However, they also knew that, by utilising that budget differently, they could invest in prevention and improve women’s health, which is exactly what Joe Long was talking about. I also highlight that the hospital at home service is very successful in my community.

I support the new thinking around subnational planning in our NHS to spread good practice but, having listened to constituents, I have the following observations. When it comes to specialisms such as hip and knee replacements, a national service is the way forward. However, kidney dialysis services should, in my view, be local. I have seen the difference that the dialysis service on the Isle of Bute has made there and how different that is to the experience of my constituents in Lorn and the isles, who have to travel to Fort William for dialysis. I hope that distinction will be recognised by the Government and acted on by cabinet secretaries.

I attended many hustings during the election campaign and the question of ferries always came up. It was clear from the questions we were asked that the triangle of CalMac Ferries, Caledonian Maritime Assets Ltd and Transport Scotland does not work. I am pleased that our manifesto includes a commitment to look at that. One suggestion—the Norwegian operating model—was considered and I hope that both Mr McKee and Mr Flynn will take that on board, so to speak.

I strongly believe that the fantastic third sector will help to provide the answers to many of our questions, as others have said. Those in that sector understand the people whom they support, are willing to find innovative ways of working, and are trusted by communities, as Dawn Black mentioned.

In March, I attended a fashion show in Oban, where four local third sector organisations came together to collaborate—not compete—to raise funds for the amazing work that they do across the Oban area. It was fun, colourful and had a clear message: look what we can do if we are empowered to pool our scarce resources. I would advocate for a memorandum of understanding between statutory bodies and the third sector to enable such collaboration, and I absolutely recognise what David Green said about Highland Hospice.

In the time that I have left, I will drop some pebbles into the pool and hope that the ripples that they create will shift public service reform in the right direction. Dawn Black was absolutely correct to talk about Mairi Gougeon and her work on the good food nation, which could really empower local procurement and community wealth building. I heard a suggestion from Argyll and Bute Council about childminders looking after children outwith their homes. I also think, as others have said, that we should move away from yearly budget allocations and, as I mentioned yesterday, I think that we need simpler forms. We should listen directly to communities that find solutions to situations. For example, Tiree has a community vet, a solar array and a community interest company for local carers. Those are all things that local people are doing to try to change the way in which their community operates.

As you know, Presiding Officer, I am trying to bring Gaelic into the chamber. There is a proverb that I hope the cabinet secretary and others will take note of, and which recognises the importance of Scotland’s public service teams. That proverb is, “An rud a nithear gu math, chithear a bhuil,” or, “What is well done will be shown by results.”